Women warriors: the right to fight

In the first of a three-part series on women in the military, a look at the impact of the recent US decision to lift the ban on women in frontline combat roles.

March 01, 2013

The “woman warrior” has appeared in many forms throughout history. In ancient Greek mythology, the Amazons were a fierce tribe of female fighters who lived in separate societies, rebelled against male dominance and bravely fought in many wars, including the Trojan War. In Vietnam, the Trung Sisters led an uprising against Chinese occupiers 2,000 years ago, and are now revered as national symbols of freedom with a yearly holiday to commemorate their deaths in service to the country. They are often depicted riding giant elephants and wielding swords.

The modern-day female fighter may not necessarily carry a weapon, but across the world women are involved in military operations on a variety of levels. Traditionally active in support roles such as medics and technicians, women are now also eligible for combat duties in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Sweden.

Success based on qualifications, not gender

In America, women have just recently been permitted to take on combat roles. “I believe it is the responsibility of every citizen to protect the nation. And every citizen who can meet the qualifications of service should have that opportunity,” said Leon Panetta, United States Secretary of Defense, in a press conference earlier this year. “It is clear that women are contributing in unprecedented ways to the military’s mission of defending the nation.”

Established in 1994, the Direct Ground Combat Definitions and Assignment Rule forbid women to serve in front-line combat positions. In November 2012, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of four female veterans, challenging the constitutionality of the rule and claiming the Pentagon was not moving quickly enough to modernize its policies.

But the military was already taking steps. Earlier in 2012, the US military announced a series of modifications to the ground combat rule that opened up 14,000 new positions, some of which were involved with combat units. Calling the resulting experiences “very positive,” Panetta announced in January 2013 that the military was now repealing the ban on women in combat and moving forward to eliminate all unnecessary gender-based barriers to service.

Panetta noted that 152 women in uniform have died in the US military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although officially these women were serving in support roles, “men and women are fighting and dying together, and the time has come for our policies to recognize that reality.

“I fundamentally believe that our military is more effective when success is based solely on ability, on qualifications, and on performance.”

Should women fight alongside men?

However, not everyone within America’s military agrees. Decrying the changes as “a vast social experiment,” retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, spoke out on behalf of many of the military’s skeptics. Noting the extreme physical toll, “abysmal” living conditions, and the potential for conflicts due to sexual tension between the genders, Boykin claimed that including women in frontline combat roles “may impair the military effectiveness of our ground forces.”

Citing concern for women currently in the military who may not want to be subjected to front-line duty, Boykin warned, “This policy change may have the ironic effect of forcing women to reconsider their place in the armed services.”

In 2001, Germany lifted its ban on women in combat positions after female electrician Tanja Kreil filed a lawsuit in the European Court of Justice. In the next article in the series, we’ll take a closer look at some of the experiences and challenges women face in military operations in Germany, and elsewhere in the world.

Mothers at risk: Protecting life-givers

Risks of Sex & Parenthood (1/16)

Pregnant women with their bellies painted take part in "Healthy Maternity Week" in Lima, Peru. The biggest cause of death and illness among women of childbearing age is reproductive ill-health. Problems with pregnancy, childbirth, sexual violence and sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS account for 20 percent of the global burden of female ill-health, says the WHO. For men the figure is 14 percent.

In a world of 7 billion people, with many populations growing rapidly, this is a critical healthcare issue and a key demographic risk. “Protecting reproductive health and rights is fundamental to our collective future and sustainable development,” said Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, UNFPA Executive Director, in a statement on World Population Day 2011. (Source: Reuters)

Enforce Reproductive Rights (2/16)

To be able to voluntarily choose “the number, timing and spacing of children” is a fundamental human right that should be observed and protected by governments, communities and families.

From this principle flow other reproductive rights: the freedom from sexual violence, forced marriage or unwanted pregnancies; access to education, family planning services, safe abortion (where legal) and healthcare. All these rights must be enforced by the authorities so people, especially women, have control over their own bodies and so protect their health. (Source: Reuters)

Educate Women, Reduce Risk (3/16)

Educating women reduces poverty and educated girls are likely to earn their own money, marry later and to have smaller, healthier families. Women's education is linked to lower infant mortality and better opportunities for their children. Girls who are educated know and claim their reproductive rights, thus reducing the risks of forced marriage, coerced pregnancies and sexual violence.

The winner of the 2011 UN Population Award, Iranian demographer Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, has shown that improving women’s education, status and their access to reproductive healthcare has led to smaller family sizes. “Education and greater gender equity become a form of social contraception,” writes co-author of the World Bank Reproductive Health Action Plan Sadia Chowdhury. (Source: Reuters)

Provide Reproductive Health Education (4/16)

Reproductive health education and services, especially sex and family planning education for young people, is critical to avoid sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies and sexual abuse. Adolescents should be warned about unprotected sex, sexual coercion, infections, and unsafe abortions.

From an early age girls should be empowered to delay marriage and pregnancy until they are physically and emotionally mature, while boys and men need to be encouraged to be sexually responsible and treat women as equal partners. (Source: Reuters)

Ensure Access to Contraception (5/16)

Schoolgirls in Manila get a lesson in artificial contraception methods. As many as half of all pregnancies are unplanned and a quarter are unwanted, reports the UN Population Fund. These unintended pregnancies often put at risk the lives of girls too young or women too physically weak to cope with pregnancy and childbirth. Unsafe abortions are another lethal hazard.

Ensuring women have access to modern contraceptives is therefore “the first step to avoid maternal deaths” according to the World Bank Reproductive Health Action Plan. Yet there are still over 200 million women in the developing world without this access, many of them in sub-Saharan Africa. (Source: Reuters)

Avoid Disease, Use Condoms (6/16)

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are, after complications of pregnancy and childbirth, the leading cause of health problems for women of reproductive age. They can cause miscarriages, premature birth, stillbirth and lead to cervical cancer, HIV infection and infertility. Children suffer too. Every year, at least half a million infants are born with congenital syphilis.

Condom promotion and distribution, as well as education and advocacy on the dangers of STIs, are essential measures, while screening pregnant women for STIs will help define the best treatment for both mothers and newborns.
(Source: Reuters)

Prevent HIV/AIDS Infections (7/16)

A Honduran woman with AIDS and her non-AIDS infected sons outside a treatment center where she receives antiretroviral drugs. Women are increasingly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS because of lack of health education, discrimination, and their relative powerlessness to refuse sex or insist on safe sex, especially within marriage. In sub-Saharan Africa, 76 per cent of the infected young people are female.

Empowering women relative to men, ensuring access to HIV education and condoms, and enforcing laws against sexual violence are essential. So is giving HIV positive mothers access to antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding. One study found that this cuts HIV infections in infants by 43% by the age of one year and reduces transmissions during breastfeeding by 54%. (Source: Reuters)

Care for Mothers during Pregnancy (8/16)

A pregnant woman receives an ultrasound scan in Arizona. Prenatal care checks the health of the baby, teaches mothers about danger signs during pregnancy, provides special nutritional advice, and can identify conditions like anemia that can put the mother and her unborn baby at risk. Good prenatal care and voluntary testing and counseling can also minimize the risk of HIV transmission from HIV-positive parents to their unborn children.

Pregnant women should be visited by health professionals at least four times before birth, say the WHO and UNICEF, but less than 50 percent of women during the 2003-2008 period received four visits.
(Source: Reuters)

Support More Midwives (9/16)

The single best way to ensure a safe birth is for a trained midwife to be with the mother, to spot complications and get emergency help if needed for the mother and the newborn child. Midwives have been critical in all countries that have achieved dramatic improvements in maternal mortality.

Midwives not only care for women and their babies during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period, they also provide other health services like immunizations. Midwives in the community are, the UNFPA reports, the best and most cost-effective way to provide access to maternal health care.

Yet there is a chronic shortage of midwives or health workers with midwifery skills. The WHO estimates some 350,000 are urgently needed in developing countries.
(Source: Reuters)

Provide Emergency Obstetric Care (10/16)

Most maternal deaths are avoidable yet every day 1000 women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. The knock-on effect is huge. For example, infants whose mothers die are more likely to die than infants whose mothers survive.

When something goes badly wrong, women need emergency obstetric care in proper health facilities. All five of the major causes of maternal deaths – excessive bleeding, sepsis, unsafe abortion, hypertensive disorders and obstructed labour – can be treated there. Trained staff who can administer blood transfusions can be life-savers: excessive bleeding after birth can kill a woman in less than two hours.
(Source: Reuters)

Care for Mothers after Childbirth (11/16)

The 48 hours after delivery are critical to the survival chances of mother and child. Almost half of all maternal deaths take place during that period. Postpartum care identifies excessive bleeding, hypertension, infection and other life-threatening conditions while also assessing the baby’s health.

Where no care is available, UNFPA clean delivery kits – including a new razor blade and string for cutting and tying the umbilical cord – can help prevent fatal infections.

In addition, this is the time for health professionals to counsel the mother about infant care, breastfeeding and nutrition, especially the mother is HIV-positive and risks transmitting the virus to her child through her breastmilk.
(Source: Reuters)

Treat Complications of Childbirth (12/16)

A teenage African girl recovering after her operation to repair fistula damage. There are many long-term complications of childbearing, such as anemia, infertility, damaged pelvic structure, chronic infection, and depression. Fistula—a hole in the birth canal caused by a prolonged labor which usually leads to a stillborn baby and leaves women permanently debilitated—is one of the worst.

These problems, if left untreated, can lead to spiraling medical costs and physical incapacity leading to poverty, marital collapse, violence against women, social exclusion, and early death. But they can all be treated given the right access to reproductive healthcare. Basic surgery can usually deal with fistula for a cost of just $300.
(Source: Reuters)

Space Children Two Years Apart (13/16)

Getting pregnant too soon after giving birth can be bad for the health of both mother and the next child.
Short birth-to-pregnancy intervals increase the risk of miscarriages, stillbirths, infant and maternal mortality. In some places, they may lead to higher rates of child malnutrition.

Experts recommend waiting at least two years before getting pregnant again in order to allow the woman’s body and reproductive organs to recover sufficiently.
(Source: Reuters)

Empower Women (14/16)

A Bangladeshi field-worker from a microcredit agency with villagers. Poverty often prevents women from exercising their reproductive rights, with terrible consequences for children, families and communities. Economically empowering women by providing equal access to education, information, job and financial opportunities—microfinance for example—is critical.

The World Bank introduced the Adolescent Girls Initiative in 2008, aiming to help girls and young women aged 16 to 24 to stay in school, avoid early pregnancies, build savings and acquire new skills. It supports programs in various countries that ultimately help women protect their reproduction health.
(Source: Reuters)

End Child Marriage (15/16)

Fourteen-year-old child bride Lalita Saini in Jaipur, India. Forced early marriage of young girls can cause lifelong problems, especially due to early childbearing. Teenage mothers are more likely to die in childbirth. They often find it difficult to access contraception or other reproductive health services and so unsafe abortions are a major danger.

Early childbearing is linked to obstetric fistula, while adolescent mothers have children with low birth weight, inadequate nutrition and anemia. And they are more likely to develop cervical cancer later in life. In some countries marriage to older men makes girls more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS because the older the man the more sexual partners he will have had and the less likely he will have practiced safe sex.
(Source: Reuters)

End Sexual Violence (16/16)

A volunteer teaches children about sexual violence in Cape Town, South Africa. Sexual violence against women, both within and outside marriage, leads to unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, sexually-transmitted infections and other gynecological and psychological problems that place a wholly unnecessary burden on health services.

Cultural and social norms that place women in permanently subservient roles are a factor although experts find that the most important thing is the way children, especially boys, are brought up and socialized. From a young age they must be taught that violence against women is intolerable. (Source: Reuters)